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Having recently completed a BORDA off road driving course, I was keen to try my new found skills. Unfortunately, my first outing was to nearby site advertised in the magazines. This left a bad feeling about these events as it was little more than a wrecker's site for old and battered Suzuki SJs. One poor guy in a decent Range Rover found himself in a 3 foot deep hole with his bodywork scraping the side. There had to be something better. Having seen a few good events in the magazine 'Off Road and 4 Wheel Drive', I decided to join their trip to Armthorpe.
Armthorpe
is a man made site on what is otherwise a flat area. All the usual facilities
were there, burger bar, toilets, parking for the non 4x4 visitors, plus a
motor cross circuit next door for those who prefer two wheels to four. The
site has water areas, steep hills as well as the usual boggy bits. None of
the hills are steeper than about 1 in 3, although some seemed steeper to
me. The water depth was around 18" to 2 foot in places with deeper holes
marked using poles and tape. The area is mainly well drained giving good
grip around most of the site. There were a few cars fitted with ordinary
road tyres that seemed to manage all but the most muddy slopes.
Entering a new site is always a nervous time, you are never sure who else
is there or what their off road skill level is. Club Off Road have their
'Red Coats' to keep an eye on everyones safety. The image above shows a still
taken from my Hi8 camcorder and gives an impression of the mud at the site
entrance. My Cherokee's BFG All Terrain tyres slipped a little in these
conditions, I wouldn't have liked to use road biased tyres to drive through
this lot. Driving over the first mild 'bump' gave a good view of the steepest
hill
.
The blue Land Rover makes it look steep, but most vehicles managed provided
their drivers drove with a certain amount of determination up it. One guy
in an early Land Rover made more ruts than progress trying to follow us over
it. It just shows there is more to off road driving that buying a 4x4 and
fitting it with chunky tyres.
The next part of the circuit was a mud filled ditch (for want of a better explanation). The water was only about a foot deep with a choice of driving up one side of the ditch or over a hill at the end. As we couldn't see the other side of the hill, we chose the easier route to the right. It's a pity the camera view seems to flatten out this course as from the driving seat it all looks very much steeper!
Further around the course was another ditch and hill, this hill was more
tempting - after all why come to a site like this with a real off road car
and not go over the hills? We made the hill with ease a couple of times before
it eventually became too rutted for those who needed their car for work the
next day. Cars that made this hill look easy included a
Jeep Wrangler
plus the usual Defenders. One car that struggled was a
Lightweight Land
Rover, maybe the heavier vehicles had enough momentum to force their
way through the
ruts?
This drivers eye view of the water filled ditch and rutted hill is probably
one of the better images of the day.
Near the end of the circuit there is a rather daunting pond, if it wasn't
for the Red Coats warning to we careful of deep water, I wouldn't have given
it a second thought. Not seeing anyone else going on the route either meant
losing face and waiting, filling the Jeep with water, or just 'going for
it'. Luckily the water wasn't as deep as it looked at only about 18
inches.
There were a few petrol engined Land Rovers needing a can of WD-40 to re-start
their engines after a trip through this pond. This image of a
Lightweight L/R
going through the water gives an impression of the depth. Note that many
road going 4x4s haven't a specified wading depth and are therefore liable
to suffer water ingress into bearings due to cooling of the differentials.
My Cherokee was factory fitted with breather tubes into both the front and
rear axles, the front tube is brought out high at the rear of the engine
bay. It's a pity Jeep still fit the Cherokee with rear drum brakes, these
need cleaning out after a days playing. Cleaning rear brake drums is a
simple
job but a chore. You can pull the brake drum off after removing a rear wheel
(without the hand brake applied). A brush out with brake cleaning fluid is
all that's required. Cleaning the mud from the engine bay is another story...
One of the most impressive vehicles at Armthorpe was a Suzuki Jimny. This diminutive replacement for the SJ series seemed to cope with terrain that several Land Rover drivers thought twice about. The only modification had been to fit off road tyres.
Few drivers got stuck to the point of needing a tow. I don't know why this modified Range Rover became stuck. One Land Rover driver chose to try his luck at a deep stretch of water and became stranded nose down in about 4 feet of water (sadly, I didn't have a camera to hand at that location).
Armthorpe Motor Park is located half a mile east of Junction 4 of the M18. Club Off Road can be contacted by looking up their details in the current issue of Off Road and 4 Wheel Drive magazine. The Club Off Road day cost £20 for non members and £15 for COR members (subscribers to OR & 4WD are automatically Club Off Road members). The Armthorpe site is open every day from 10am with a catering caravan on weekends. The 'turn up and play' cost is £15 per vehicle for four hours. See the folks at the motor cross caravan.
Images on this page were either grabbed from Hi8 video with a Snappy frame grabber or were taken on a Kodak DC210 plus digital camera (those with a 'd' in the image file name).
Copyright © D Johnson, 2000, all rights reserved.
